ELLEN!

Ellen was amazing!! It was an absolute blast. Jocelyn, Kara (Jocelyn's sis), Carly (Joc's roomate), and I all got seated in the very front row! We arrived at the show around 11:30am...check in wasn't until 1pm, but we decided to play it safe and get there early. We parked at the Warner Bro's studio parking lot, got our hand stamped for the Ellen show and waited until they called everyone for check in. Kara (being super excited to see Ellen, too) jumped in the check in line before they announced it, which caused everyone else to line up too. Kara got our numbers for the show #1-#4 to be exact :) and we had to wait some more. It was a lot of waiting. They had a seating area and played the previous days episode of Ellen while we waited. They also had an "entertainer/enthusiast" to get us pumped up for the show. During waiting they had an audience talent show, which none of us girls participated in. We watched though. After that, a couple of ladies who work for the show went around and picked out certain people to meet in the back parking lot. They chose us 4 girls and when we got back there, they asked us our names and asked Carly to stay. Carly was picked to be on TV (one of the audience participants) BUT she had to decline because she called in sick to work!! Bummer! She works at a studio for the Carson Daly show, so they would have probably seen her. After more waiting, they finally lined us up and took us over to Ellen's studio in groups of about 30. We were one of the first groups to go and when we got inside they pointed out where they wanted us to sit. FRONT ROW! Couldn't have been more excited! After everyone filled up the studio, they played upbeat music and the "entertainment guy" pumped everyone up. Finally, Ellen came out and the show started! It was awesome!! It felt like the camera's were in our face the whole time and it turns out we were on tv a few times! I think Ellen was sick though, because during the commercial breaks she kept blowing her nose and they had to retouch her make-up around her nose. Her eyes looked kinda watery and she seemed a little tired. She still kept up her tempo though. After our filming they rushed us out, handed us our prizes (Slumdog Millionare on DVD and Martina McBride's new CD), and we headed back to our car. They film 2 shows on Thursday, the second one was filmed right after our episode and will air on Monday.

All in all, Ellen was a blast!! It was almost exhausting...all the dancing (they made us dance during the commercial breaks too), screaming, and yelling...but sooo worth it!! I was SO tired afterwards but headed straight to work to play nurse for the night. Camera's weren't allowed in the studio, but I *snuck* this photo on my iphone!